PDF in Rails

1. install the pdf-writer

gem install pdf-writer 

2. require & register in the rails env.

#vi environment.rb 
require 'pdf/writer' 
Mime::Type.register 'application/pdf', :pdf 

3. usage:

# lib/product_drawer.rb 
def self.draw(products) 
 pdf = PDF::Writer.new 
 products.each do |product| 
  pdf.text product.name 
 end 
 pdf.render 
end 

# products_controller.rb 
def index 
 @products = Product.find(:all) 
 respond_to do |format| 
  format.html 
  format.pdf do 
send_data ProductDrawer.draw(@products), 
   :filename => 'products.pdf', 
   :type=> 'application/pdf', 
    :disposition => 'inline' 
  end 
 end 
end 

# in view

<p><%= link_to 'PDF Format', formatted_products_path(:pdf) %></p> 

# in browser

<A href="http://localhost:3000/products.pdf" target=_blank>http://localhost:3000/products.pdf</A>